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goats from the island, to preserve the habitat of the last red deer and to prevent
damage to the olive groves (Sanvisente, 1849). Current knowledge indicates that
most of the wild goat populations of the centrai Mediterranean islets became
extinct between the fìrst half of the nineteenth century an d the twentieth century.
The wild goats ofTavolara are thought to have become extinct in the course of
the nineteenth century (Ciani et al., 1999), andare now replaced byferal animals
originating fra m the Sardinian domestic race, whereas the caprines of La Galite
vanished around 1904, at the time of the construction of the Galitone rock
lighthouse (Lavauden, 1924). During the nineteenth century, or even earlier, a
few specimens of the latter goat were imported by fishermen onta the island of
San Pietro, off the south-western Sardinian coast, to improve local breeds, and
there is evidence of their survival up to the 1970s. Even today, it is in fact not so
unusual to fìnd some specimens of wild goat bred within domestic flocks an
Mediterranean islands. The wild goats ofY aura, far example, are qui te commonly
bred an several Aegean islands, such as Alonissos and Tilos, and up to the 1960s
i t was comma n practice to release domestic livestock o n Antirnilos or in the Cretan
White Mountains to let them interbreed with the local wild goats.

CONCLUDING REMARKS

As far as is presently known, while the origin of the wild goats ofLampedusa
is documented in nineteenth century literature, the origin of the red deer
population, and when and how they appeared an the island is stili obscure and
veiled in mystery. Effectively, late Pleistocene-early Holocene fossils from
Lampedusa reveal no cervid remains but only endemie mammals of Mrican
origin (Burgio and Catalisano, 1994; Burgio et al., 1997). These Ethiopian
elements include several osteological fragments which show affinities with the
species Syncerus caffer (Sparrmann, 1779), and possibly with one representative
of the Hippotraginae family (Fig. 7). One has to wait, however, until the
appearance of the Neolithic culture an Lampedusa to fìnd the earliest evidence
far the presence of Palaearctic mammals, such as domestic caprines ( Ovis ve!
Capra), and boars, Sus scrofa L., 1758 (cf. Radi, 1972) ofanthropochorous origin.
Attributed to the Stentinello style, a cultura! facies also documented fra m south-
eastern Sicily, these remains also yielded o ne incomplete canine of red fax, Vulpes
vulpes (L., 1758), certainly imported onta the island far decorative purposes.
Sommier (1908) reported that the introduction of deer an Lampedusa was
perhaps perpetrated by "the ancient masters of the island". And, as far as is presently
lmown, this introduction could have been carri ed aut by the Anglo-Mal tese
gentleman Fernandes, who tried to convert the unproductive soils ofLampedusa
into an agricultural estate at the beginning of the nineteenth century (cf Fragapane,
1993). It is not immediately apparent, however, why people should have wanted

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